Newly Summoned Demoness - Chapter 36 - Moving Forward (Patreon)

The waystation was deserted as Elania stepped through the entryway. The shimmering blue field was deactivated, and there were no signs of the monks having been there other than the smothered remains of the campfire.

She’d been gone a while, but it hadn’t felt like it had been that long. It had taken a while to refill her [Power] and craft new javelins, but not that long. She checked each alcove to make sure there was nothing left behind, then activated her [Tracking] skill. Sure enough, the footprints of the monks stood out blatantly, and judging by the color they had left a few hours earlier.

The silence in the chamber felt heavier than she’d experienced before. Surprise gave way to the sting of minor betrayal, a bitter taste spreading in her mouth. From the direction of the tracks, it didn’t seem like they had even looked for her at all.

Abandoned, then. Not that they had parted on the best terms, she supposed. Taniel probably forced the issue.

Whether it was Taniel’s disdain, or the novices’ fear, why was she surprised…and yet she was? They’d escaped from the [Manzitore] together and traveled a bit. Shouldn’t that have been worth a little consideration?

She pushed the feelings away. Dwelling on it wasn’t going to help her at all, and it wasn’t like she was lost. With her new tracking ability, she could easily catch up to them.

But did she want to? Moments turned into hours as she carefully picked her path through the Underdark, following the trail. Moderating her pace, she kept the party just ahead of her as she dwelled on the question. Several times they came into view in some of the larger caverns, but thanks to her [Stealth] they didn’t seem to notice her.

Before she figured out the answer to her question, a roar echoed from ahead. Picking up her pace, she reached the group as they faced off with something she’d not seen before.

[Rockbear]

It was only half the size of the [Manzitore] but that wasn’t saying much; it was still easily two meters tall at the shoulder! The bear moved forward faster than its size hinted at as well, and Joren dodged under the claw swipes in rapid motion before landing a counter kick to the bear’s forearm. The loud crack of fractured stone sounded, but the thing was far from deterred.

It lumbered forward and nearly crushed the monk, except for a sudden flare of yellow energy that appeared around him. Elania’s head whipped over to Taniel, who was using his prayer beads. As much as she hated to admit it, because Taniel was an asshole, it was a nice save.

The novices had retreated to a corner and huddled together. She made her way to them.

Either [Stealth] was way more effective than she gave it credit for, or the monks were really…really bad at noticing things. A few feet away, she stopped and crouched down, then greeted them.

“Hey. Are you guys okay?” Elania asked innocently.

Two of them shrieked, one pissed his pants, and the last had the fortitude to speak. “H..h..help! Rock Bear!”

She nodded. “Is it strong?”

The young monk stammered out a response. “T…T…tough!”

It didn’t seem like questioning them was going to produce much information, and another loud clash with the sound of shattering rock hinted at escalation.

She reached out and patted the novice on the shoulder. “Got it. I’ll go help Joren.”

When she rounded the corner, the situation had indeed changed. A second [Rockbear] had appeared and gone straight for Taniel. Joren was still focused on dodging and fighting his opponent, but the spiritual monk seemed to be having a much harder time.

It didn’t seem he was able to mount an offense, and Elania noticed that on each block with his yellow shield the protective light grew smaller.

She drew one of her javelins and moved to the side to get a better angle for her to throw. Once in position, she didn’t hold back. Judging by the bear’s rocky armor plates, she needed to put a lot of energy into it. Goodbye javelin.

[Power] dissolved the projectile almost instantly, and the yellow bolt flew on course for where she estimated the bear’s heart could be. Unfortunately, it jumped at the last movement, making the angle of impact all wrong.

Ninety-degrees suddenly turned into a glancing strike, albeit one that dug a foot deep gouge in the beast’s armor all the way down its left flank. It immediately jumped to pivot toward her and let out a challenging roar.

Well, she had drawn it away from Taniel. Maybe he’d be able to do something to help if he wasn’t stuck protecting himself constantly.

The [Rockbear] predictably charged her. Rather than running or charging back, she drew a second javelin and charged it up to throw as well. The bear jumped as the projectile was mid-flight, spoiling her aim for the eye socket. It slammed into the bear’s chest instead, a thunderous crack loud enough to shake the cavern.

The bolt dug in three quarters of its length, hinting at a successful penetration, but the bear continued toward her unabated. She’d dumped fifty [Power] into the two strikes, so she pulled the same amount from her mana shard to top her off. It was slightly more difficult with the insulating cloth, but she finished that just as it reached her.

The bear went for a sideswipe. She poured [Power] into her feet, body, and fist and crouched. Her fist swiped outward, her knuckles slamming into the beast’s paw. The force blew stone chunks off the bear’s limb, and a sickening crack echoed as bones underneath the plating fractured.

The [Rockbear] listed to the side, falling toward the now ruined limb, completely off balance.

She wasn’t done, though. Launching herself forward, she exploded for the thing’s throat. If she’d known martial arts, a fancy kick like the one Joren had demonstrated might have been more effective. All she knew how to do was punch.

The bear wasn’t going to evade, so she dumped half her remaining power into the force of the blow. Her body protested; she wasn’t supposed to put this much [Power] into any attack. Her arm burned and its sensation went out as nerves died from overload.

Healing nerves was always a pain in the ass.

But the attack was effective. The [Rockbear] seemed to rely on its heavy armor to allow it to bash its opponents to death. Rock was tough, hard, and… brittle.

And, oh boy, did her [Power] dump deliver a lot of kinetic energy into it, ensuring that it fractured. Her fist dug into the outer armor plate a few inches before the force began to spread like a shockwave. Spiderweb cracks formed across the Bear’s entire rock shell before exploding into a hurricane of splinters.

They pelted her savagely, several of them digging into her skin and tearing into her outfit.

The internal damage to the bear was even worse than its shattered stone shell.

The [Rockbear] dropped dead, instantly. Unfortunately, she was underneath it. The heavy weight pinned her down, but the option to absorb appeared and she took it.

[You have absorbed 99 Power!]

[You have gained Rockbear Affinity!]

[You have gained the skill Body Conditioning!]

[Consume more Rockbear Essence to enable Rockbear Transformation!]

The rock that had embedded itself into her phased away, fueling her [Power] storage and allowing her [Regeneration] to kick into overdrive.

As she got to her feet, she watched Joren slam a fist into the bear’s forehead. Taniel’s spiritual-monk-holy-shield-thing flashed around him as the bear attempted to swat him away. Able to focus solely on offense, it seemed like every punch Joren made became faster and stronger. His fists began to glow, and then he landed a kick to the [Rockbear]’s jaw.

The beast staggered and fell to the side. It wasn’t down though, and let out a roar and swing its head at the monk. He dodged backwards.

Elania panted heavily, her insides writhing before settling out. [Regeneration] always played weird and disgusting feelings through her body whenever she was heavily damage. Also painful. Her arm seared as it knit itself back together, but she had grown used to that. That didn’t mean tears didn’t pour from her eyes as she bit down, but it meant she didn’t come close to passing out.

Instead of launching herself back into the fight, she took the time to watch how Joren and Taniel fought. Her [Power] ratio for dealing with one [Rockbear] was negative forty-three. The ranged attacks had cost fifty and seemed to have been ineffective. Since the beast had paid off so much, taking one down would be a small net gain.

Taniel began to chant something she couldn't translate. This was confirmation that [Universal Speech] didn’t translate arcane stuff.

Yellow lights began to appear in the air around the bear before they launched themselves like rockets into the stoney armor plates, leaving glowing radiant spots behind. The [Rockbear] rose on its hind legs and swatted at Joren again, but he grabbed the limb and threw himself into the air.

He barely avoided being chomped on by spinning around the massive jaws, then landed a punch on one of the glowing marks.

The force was multiplied; a crater in the armor slammed the bear into the ground. As Joren landed with a kick on another spot, the explosion of force sent a shockwave rippling outward, full of dust and rubble. It suddenly made sense why the two had been paired together. Their abilities synergized well with each other.

The dust and rubble kicked up by Joren’s final blow gradually settled, revealing the form of the first [Rockbear] embedded into the ground. It didn’t move or get back up.

Joren nodded to her as he straightened out of his combat stance, a wry smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. Taniel, on the other hand, was panting heavily, beads of sweat trailing down his face as he gripped his set of prayer beads.

She gave a little wave, then turned back to find the novices. “Are you all okay?” she asked. The one who managed to speak earlier stuttered out a thank you while the other two simply nodded.

“What do you want?” Taniel’s hostility was palpable even from a distance. What the fuck? She’d just saved his life.

“I wanted to help,” Elania said carefully, her eyes flickering to Joren, who remained silent.

“You’ve done enough,” Taniel replied tersely.

Elania’s brow furrowed in confusion. “What do you mean? I saved you from the second [Rockbear]!”

“I was dealing with it just fine. I didn’t need your help!” Taniel shouted.

“Like hell you were!” Elania snapped back. Behind Taniel, Joren shook his head weakly.

She let out an exasperated sigh. “So, what are you going to do with it? Chop it up? Harvest its meat?”

A confused look appeared on Taniel’s face. “What? It’s a [Rockbear] its made of rock. It’ll just sit there.”

“Can I have it?”

Before Taniel could speak, Joren put his arm around the other monk and gave her a smile. “Sure thing.”

“What do you want with it?” Taniel asked suspiciously.

“I’m going to eat it,” Elania said. A smile erupted on her face. “Like the other one.”

Both monks’ eyes widened as they turned to where she had taken down the second bear. Apparently, they hadn’t noticed the missing corpse.

[You have absorbed 102 Power!]

[You have gained Rockbear Affinity!]

[You have gained the skill Body Conditioning!]

[Consume more Rockbear Essence to enable Rockbear Transformation!]

The extra [Power]flushed through her system, setting her insides alight. It was a familiar sensation she had grown accustomed to, but the messages complaining about it assailed her.

[Due to your excess power, your body is exceeding its limits!]

[Your body is experiencing thermal degradation!]

[Your body is slightly adapting.]

[Power: 289/252]

Her maximum had ticked up several times already. If she hadn’t had spent so much fighting the bear she would have really been over the maximum.

The dissolving light motes flowing into her left a massive crater where Joren had smashed it into the ground. One thing was certain: she needed to respect their fighting powers. The battle with the Darkwalker Demon…and perhaps a heavy amount of predatory instinct from absorbing things had made her overconfident.

But…being walked over and treated poorly was out of the question. The entire situation felt so frustrating.

When she turned back to the monks, all of them were staring at her with shocked expressions.

“You just…but it was…you absorbed all of it.” Joren stuttered. “How didn’t you immolate yourself?”

Elania flicked her hair behind an ear. “It was just a snack.”

Did other demons have lower [Power] capacities? Why? Maybe she was being too aggressive with [Regeneration] and pushing her limit higher? Did it have bad side effects?

Why, why, why. The questions were exhausting. “What about Marcus? He didn’t catch up yet? Do you think he was able to defeat the Manzitore?”

The change in topic worked. Joren frowned and thought for a moment before answering. “I don’t know if he could kill the thing. They have a lot of powers and have high natural potency, so their skills are all generally S+ ranked, and that one seemed to have extra perks, too. He probably was able to escape. I doubt it was able to kill him, either.”

So, battles between powerful and dangerous people and monsters tended to be stalemates? That hadn’t been her experience so far. Everything usually ended with a single high-powered attack. Although that might have just been because she was…different in a lot of ways.

“I’m surprised he wouldn’t get tired and then run down,” Elania replied.

Taniel shook his head. “He’s a ranger, and it’s hard to pin that type down. They are at home down here, too.”

She bit her lip, looking between the two while the novices picked themselves up and dusted off. Each of the [Glow-Moss Baskets] got an integrity check, too.

“How do classes work? I haven’t figured that out yet,” Elania said.

Taniel glared at her before going to sort out the novices. It seemed like no matter what she did or said, even saving his life, he wasn’t going to stop hating her.

Joren gave her a weak smile. “Classes are based on… well, it’s complicated.”

As the group began to trudge along behind Taniel, she waited patiently for Joren to continue.

“Classes are a combination of personal belief and [System] judgement.”

Elania’s brows furrowed. “Personal belief? You mean someone can just believe themselves into being something like, uhh… an archmage or something?”

Joren frowned. “If someone believes strongly that they are a warrior, then the system will usually pick that over something else, like fighter. However, if their skills are completely out of tune with the perception of whatever ‘class’ they feel they are, then it will reject that.”

“It works automatically? Cause at first, I was ‘Survivor’ then ‘Huntress’ and now ‘Darkwalker Huntress.” It seems like it’s getting more specific,” Elania said.

“It works on its own, but some things can prompt a change, like a sudden purposeful re-classing if your own self-image changes suddenly. Normally, it just happens in the background. I wouldn’t worry about it, unless you’re aiming for something specific,” Joren explained.

“I see,” Elania murmured, thinking about her own experiences. Running away from the cultists had designated her a ‘survivor’ then. The change to huntress made sense once she began to go all primitive with the javelin throwing. The ‘Darkwalker’ addition was probably because of how many she had absorbed and the…other more worrying changes to her psyche.

“We aren’t far from the next waystation,” Joren informed her.

She nodded and followed along. “Why did you all leave without me?”

He glanced at her. “Didn’t know you hadn’t decided to go off on your own. You said nothing and never came back. We have to get the [Glow-Moss] back to the Conclave safely, and it’s dangerous down here. Other than yelling for you, we couldn’t risk looking longer.”

“So you yelled for me when you left?” Elania asked.

“We did, yeah.”

“By ‘we’ you mean you, don’t you?” Elania pressed.

Joren looked uncomfortable. “Thanks for coming back. Two Rockbears would have been hard to deal with. Honestly, I never really believed you were the one to handle the Darkwalker Demon until now.”

The thanks made her feel good, and she realized he was right. She had disappeared for much too long after stomping off from the confrontation with Taniel. It wasn’t really their fault, since she had wandered off to do her own thing without a word. “I’m sorry for going off without saying anything. I was angry, and then I got distracted…”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m sorry for Taniel. He never really acted this way before. Then again, we never traveled with a sapient demon before, either.” Joren looked over at the other monk’s back with a frown. “For what it is worth, I don’t think you’re a bad person.”

“Thank you,” Elania replied.

The rest of the trudge to the waystation was carried out in contemplative silence.